Thumbnails under WinXPSP2 (or whatever happened to thumbs.db)

No doubt many of you have encountered Windoze XP's dumb thumnailing
system. It's handy, but if you edit an image, or rename an image onto
a previously used name (notably when renumbering batches of pictures)
the old thumbnail appears, despite the change.

Once upon a time, you could force the thumbs to update by deleting the
Thumbs.db (hidden system) file in the directory, but now I find that
there are no thumbs.db files in my image directories any more. Does
anyone know of a way to force the thumbs to update now that thumbs.db
has gone AWOL?

Whatever happened to thumbs.db anyway? Did it disappear with SP2
(surely it couldn't have been that long ago) or was it a "feature" of
one of the more recent updates?
--
R.G. "Stumpy" Marsh.
Timaru, New Zealand.

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R. G. 'Stumpy' Marsh wrote:
> Once upon a time, you could force the thumbs to update by deleting the
> Thumbs.db (hidden system) file in the directory, but now I find that
> there are no thumbs.db files in my image directories any more.

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R. G. 'Stumpy' Marsh wrote:
> No doubt many of you have encountered Windoze XP's dumb thumnailing
> system. It's handy, but if you edit an image, or rename an image onto
> a previously used name (notably when renumbering batches of pictures)
> the old thumbnail appears, despite the change.
>
> Once upon a time, you could force the thumbs to update by deleting the
> Thumbs.db (hidden system) file in the directory, but now I find that
> there are no thumbs.db files in my image directories any more. Does
> anyone know of a way to force the thumbs to update now that thumbs.db
> has gone AWOL?
>
> Whatever happened to thumbs.db anyway? Did it disappear with SP2
> (surely it couldn't have been that long ago) or was it a "feature" of
> one of the more recent updates?

thumbs.db is still there on my XP Pro sp2 system. Have you changed folder
view to hide system files?
--
~misfit~

In article <>, says...
> No doubt many of you have encountered Windoze XP's dumb thumnailing
> system. It's handy, but if you edit an image, or rename an image onto
> a previously used name (notably when renumbering batches of pictures)
> the old thumbnail appears, despite the change.
>
> Once upon a time, you could force the thumbs to update by deleting the
> Thumbs.db (hidden system) file in the directory, but now I find that
> there are no thumbs.db files in my image directories any more. Does
> anyone know of a way to force the thumbs to update now that thumbs.db
> has gone AWOL?
>
> Whatever happened to thumbs.db anyway? Did it disappear with SP2
> (surely it couldn't have been that long ago) or was it a "feature" of
> one of the more recent updates?

In message <43bcd913$>, "~misfit~"
<> wrote:
>thumbs.db is still there on my XP Pro sp2 system. Have you changed folder
>view to hide system files?

First thing I checked. Thumbs.db ain't there no more. I even tried
dropping to command prompt and listing dir /ah, dir /as and dir /ash.
No thumbs.db in any of them.
--
R.G. "Stumpy" Marsh.
Timaru, New Zealand.

In article <>, says...
> In message <43bcd913$>, "~misfit~"
> <> wrote:
>
> >thumbs.db is still there on my XP Pro sp2 system. Have you changed folder
> >view to hide system files?
>
> First thing I checked. Thumbs.db ain't there no more. I even tried
> dropping to command prompt and listing dir /ah, dir /as and dir /ash.
> No thumbs.db in any of them.

When viewing a folder with the Thumbnail view, WindowsXP creates a
thumbs.db file.
This is a cache of the current pictures in that directory.
If you want to turn this feature off and save a little disk space

1.

Start the Windows Explorer
2.

Go to Tools / Folder Options / View
3.

In the first section under Files and Folders, check Do not cache
thumbnails
4.

Now you can search for the thumbs.db file on your computer and
remove them. No more should be created.

In message <>, Rob J
<> wrote:
>When viewing a folder with the Thumbnail view, WindowsXP creates a
>thumbs.db file.
>This is a cache of the current pictures in that directory.
>If you want to turn this feature off and save a little disk space
>
> 1. Start the Windows Explorer
> 2. Go to Tools / Folder Options / View
> 3. In the first section under Files and Folders, check Do not cache
>thumbnails
> 4. Now you can search for the thumbs.db file on your computer and
>remove them. No more should be created.

Thanks for that. The "do not cache thumbnails" is checked (I vaguely
remember doing that now), which would explain the lack of thumbs.db
files.

However, it doesn't solve my real problem.

I have a directory of photos I converted to greyscale with Irfanview.
All the pictures display in greyscale when viewed at full size, but
some of them thumb in colour. If it's not because of Windows caching
thumbnails, what could be causing it? Could the JPG files be holding
colour information, but just be tagged to display in greyscale?

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